Pages

Friday, February 20, 2015

If You Have $20, You Can Have a Standing Desk

I've had a back and forth involvement with standing desks over the years. I've made cheap options, and had expensive options purchased for me. I've made a standing desk out of a treadmill, but it has been best for passive actions. It's great for reading or watching videos, not so great for actually typing, plus it was limiting as to what I could put on it (no multi monitor setup). Additionally, I've not wanted to make a system that would be too permanent, since I like the option of being flexible and moving things around.

I'm back to a standing desk solution for both home and work because I'm once again dealing with recurring back pain. No question, the best motivation for getting back to standing while working is back pain. It's also a nice way to kick start one's focus and to get involved in burning a few more calories each year. I'll give a shout to Ben Greenfield, otherwise known as "Get Fit Guy" at quickanddirtytips.com for a piece of information that made me smile a bit. He recommends a "sit only to eat" philosophy. In other words, with the exception of having to drive or fly, my goal should be to sit only when I eat. All other times, I should aim to stand, kneel, lie down or do anything but sit slumped in a chair. The piece of data that intrigued me was that, by doing this, I'd be able to burn 100 additional calories each day. In a week's time, that's the equivalent of running a 10K.

For those who have access to an IKEA, or can order online, at this moment, the Ikea LACK square side table, in black or white, can be purchased for $7.99 each. I chose to do exactly that, and thus, for less than $20, including tax, I have set up this very functional standing desk at work:

The upturned wastebasket is an essential piece of this arrangement. It allows me to shift the weight from leg to leg, and to give different muscles in my back some work, and to rest other areas from time to time. I've also set up a similar arrangement at home, but added an EKBY ALEX shelf (I'll update with a picture when I get home :) ). This gives me a little extra height and some additional storage for small items. The true beauty of this system is that it can be broken down quickly and moved anywhere with very little effort, and is much less expensive than comparable systems I have seen. If you'd like to make something a little more customized, with a pair of shelf brackets and a matching 48" shelf, you can make a keyboard tray, though for me personally, the table height works perfectly.

What I find most beneficial about a standing desk, outside of the relief from back pain, is the fact that it is incredibly focusing. When I sit down, it's easy to get into passive moments and lose track of time reading stuff or just passively looking at things. When I stand, there is no such thing as "passive time". It's very focusing, and it really helps me to get into the zone and flow of what I need to do. For those looking to do something similar, seriously, this is a great and very inexpensive way to set up a standing desk.

About

I have, for the better part of my 26 year career, found myself in the role of being the "Army of One" or "The Lone Tester" more times than not. This unique viewpoint, along with ideas and advocacy regarding continuous education and learning/re-learning for testers, is frequently the grist for the mill that is TESTHEAD.

Some additional details for those interested:

I am currently a software tester and release manager for Socialtext in Palo Alto.

I am the producer of the The Testing Show, a podcast sponsored by qualitest and also featuring Matt Heusser, Justin Rohrman, and Perze Ababa, with different special guests and topics every two weeks. I was the producer of, and a regular commentator for, the SoftwareTestPro.com podcast "This Week in Software Testing" (hosted by Matt Heusser, podcast ended its run in February of 2013).

I and a number of other software tester were actively involved in the development of the Software Testing materials being developed for SummerQAmp, a nationwide initiative to train a new workforce in tech skills and create tech jobs for America's youth.